The Commercial Appeal

Why The CA suspended delivery to homes, retailers last week

- Mark Russell

The Commercial Appeal’s daily print edition has rarely not arrived each morning on thousands of area driveways, front lawns and in retail locations. That’s how we earned the nickname Old Reliable.

That streak came to an end last week when the semitraile­r carrying The CA from its printing location in Jackson, Mississipp­i, could not get through an icy and dangerous I-55 route to Memphis.

We could not deliver the Monday-through-friday newspapers. We are sorry that we could not bring print readers the coverage they paid to get in the format they wanted.

We resumed home and retail deliveries Saturday and I hope our service is back to normal levels by Monday. Our delivery folks are making every effort to also bring subscriber­s back copies from last week.

The historic winter storm, of course, brought up to 10 inches of snow to parts of the area and stalled commerce throughout the Mid-south. It also delayed postal deliveries and some stores stayed closed or had limited hours. Like other businesses that rely on deliveries to homes, some of which are located on unplowed side streets, we prioritize­d keeping our drivers safe in conditions that prompted many of us to stay indoors and avoid driving.

Of course, we still published the daily electronic edition of the print newspaper, the so-called eedition, on www.commercial­appeal.com. All subscriber­s have access to the eedition along with our web site content, also at commercial­ppeal.com

We appreciate The CA’S readers and

your support of local journalism. Despite the five-day interrupti­on in deliveries, our news team, of course, kept producing compelling stories, photos and videos on the weather that slammed the region but also was cause for celebratio­n as families enjoyed a winter landscape normally associated with Rochester or Detroit, not the temperate Mid-south.

Because the resumption of service was not without hiccups, you should know that you can call The CA’S circulatio­n department at 1-844-9007099 with questions or concerns.

Thanks, again, for your patience and support.

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